CLOCKMAKING

Description of the know-how

The know-how of clockmaking is about the restoration, the conception and the realisation of clocks, watches, and all other devices capable of measuring time with a special mechanism. This mechanism asks a scientific, a technical and an artistic knowledge. Since 2020, this know-how has been registered as a cultural and immaterial patrimony of humanity of UNESCO.

Sundial, water clock, hourglass, graduated candle, all are means to measure time since antiquity. Nevertheless, the clockmaker has appeared with the development of mechanical clocks. The first ones arrived at the end of the 13^th Century in different places in Europe. Salisbury created one in 1285.

This trade is omnipresent in all centuries and today, it constitutes a prestigious traditional know-how where art and innovation have an important part. This trade is realised by high qualified professionals. It can also ask other professionals for the decoration of the pieces, in order to hide the mechanisms or highlight it.

Since the beginning of the clockmaking story, this know-how has been the result of a collaboration between different workshops. Two parts are concerned : the manufacturing and the covering.

Finally, since the 19th Century and the industrialisation, two types of clockmakers have shared the appellation of the know-how: the clock seller and the watchmaker restorer.

A trade of the future

This know-how has been existing for centuries and it is still present in our societies. Moreover, the evolution is quite visible. François-Simon Fustier is a clockmaker. He inherited this trade from his family. He has the traditional knowledge and techniques, but he is also aware of the history of this know-how, which helps him realise all the steps of restoration and creation of a clock.

His training and his experience in electronic clocks and research and innovation are assets. It brings to each project a touch of contemporaneity and makes this know-how durable. That is why he developed with his team the software Chronospedia, a great innovation that gathers a numerical twin of big clock mechanism families. It will constitute archives of numerical twin of a clock. This software will constitute archives of clocks that has been existing through years.